A still from “The Oath,” Jury’s Stellar Award for Screen Dance by Alla Kovgan and Annie-B Parson, one of the films to be screened at the 45th annual Thomas Edison Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of Alla Kovgan, Annie-B Parson, and Sara Pereira da Silva)
The 45th anniversary season of the Thomas Edison Film Festival (TEFF) will premiere in collaboration with Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts on Friday, February 20 at the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street on the Princeton Campus. The screening of the festival’s Stellar Award-winning films will begin at 7 p.m. with a pre-screening reception starting at 6:30 p.m. A Q&A with filmmakers led by Festival Director Jane Steuerwald will follow the screening. The event is free and open to the public; no tickets or registration required.
The award-winning films to be screened represent experimental, animation, documentary, screen dance, and narrative genres. Selections from the Stellar Award-winning films will also be available to view online for one week, from February 21 through February 28, on the TEFF website.
The TEFF is an international juried competition of the Thomas A. Edison Media Arts Consortium celebrating all genres and independent filmmakers across the globe. TEFF is an Academy Awards Qualifying Festival and a Canadian Screen Award Qualifying Festival – the only film festival in New Jersey to hold these designations. The festival was founded in 1981 as the Black Maria Film Festival and originally named for Thomas Edison’s West Orange film studio, dubbed the “Black Maria” because of its resemblance to the black-box police paddy wagons of the same name.
This is the eighth year the Lewis Center has collaborated with the Consortium to host the TEFF premiere. In addition to premiering the season, the Consortium programs other screenings for Princeton audiences and brings festival filmmakers together with Princeton students and faculty.
To view the selected Stellar Award-winning films on demand from February 21 through February 28, go to the Thomas Edison Film Festival website and click on “Watch the TEFF 2026 Premiere.”
